30 cm nature aquarium

[nayr88]

This is a beeeeut Johan!! EASILY my favorite nano at the moment, and looks very very promising, a lot of people, me included get sucked into using dragon/ohko stone with manzanita wood, two great things but they can become overpowering and cancel each others 'coolness out' like with this tank I love the texture shape and color of the rock, if some mazi was in there I'd be torn between looking at the great rock to the interesting shape of the wood and it would become to complicated.

Anyway blab out the way, great tank mate.

 

[JEK]

Thanks a lot, nayr88! In my former scape, I tried the combination of red moor wood and dragon stone, but I think this works much better. I think it's important to keep the layout very simple in tanks this small.

 

[Mrmikey]

Your tank is looking mint mate, the stone placement is very intresting. I agree keeping it simple is key, and it's proof looking at yours. I had stone in my last scape but found I was scrubbing it every week thus my decision for wood will enjoy watching this progress.

 

[JohnC]

out of interest, how much does a 30cm cube tank like this cost in Europe? I am struggling to find links.

best regards,
john

 

[JEK]

out of interest, how much does a 30cm cube tank like this cost in Europe? I am struggling to find links.

best regards,
john

I bought it from www.aquaessentials.co.uk some years ago. I think the price was around 50 £...

 

[JEK]

I added some anubias barteri var. nana "petité" yesterday (actually I just moved them, they were just hidden behinds the rocks ). Actually, I think it works really well to create a transition between foreground and background...

And a full shot:

No major problems with the tank yet. I still got some brown algae, so I think it's time to add some algae eaters soon. I would like to keep a few otocinclus affinis, but I'm not sure if the tank is big enough... Any opinion on that?

The Hemianthus grows rather slow, but maybe it's normal that it takes some time for H. micranthemoides to get started..? I've never kept it before so if anyone has experience with it, please write.

Wallichii is still not looking good and there is some algea on it (which was also there when I got it). However there's new buds growing from it , so I'm just waiting for them to grow big enough, so i can remove the old, ugly stems.

 

[Tom]

That Anubias works well, I like it

 

[JenCliBee]

Out of curiosity, whats the brand of disposable co2 and bottle size your using and how long roughly does it last on your 30l?

Tanks coming along great, love the rock work

 

[JEK]

Out of curiosity, whats the brand of disposable co2 and bottle size your using and how long roughly does it last on your 30l?

Tanks coming along great, love the rock work

The brand is called "UP" and the bottle is on 95 grams. I don't know how long it will last as I haven't used up a bottle yet. The seller told me that it lasted about 1½ month at 3 BPS (turned on 24/7).

That Anubias works well, I like it

Thank you.

 

[JenCliBee]

Out of curiosity, whats the brand of disposable co2 and bottle size your using and how long roughly does it last on your 30l?

Tanks coming along great, love the rock work

The brand is called "UP" and the bottle is on 95 grams. I don't know how long it will last as I haven't used up a bottle yet. The seller told me that it lasted about 1½ month at 3 BPS (turned on 24/7).

That Anubias works well, I like it

Thank you.

Cheers mate, have seen them on fleabay and was tempted ... 1 and a half sounds pretty good at that rate.

What bubble rate are you using on that tank? and is it nice and stable showing on the DC?

Thanks again and keep up the good work

 

[JEK]

The bubble rate is around 1 per second now. I'll probably have to turn it up once the plant mass get's bigger...
Yes, I also thought that was pretty good. The bottles aren't so expensive so as long as you don't use use the system on a large tank, I think it's a pretty good solotion. It looks a bit more stylish than a big 500 grams bottle or a fire extinguisher.
Looking at the DC, the CO2 is stable, yes.

 

[LondonDragon]

You will find that is 3BPM and not per second

 

[JEK]

You will find that is 3BPM and not per second

I don't hope so

I still got some brown algae, so I think it's time to add some algae eaters soon. I would like to keep a few otocinclus affinis, but I'm not sure if the tank is big enough... Any opinion on that?

I anyone have an opinion on my question above they're very welcome to write it.

When I inspected the Hemianthis closer, I realized that it is changing leaf shape, so that must be the reason why iy has been growing slowly...

 

[JohnC]

I broke my Dennerle Nano CO2 kit after 3 refills due to the "screw to puncture" design of the cannister. I struggled to get a proper seal and ended up wasting a refill trying to fix it. In the end I just used a small FE and hid it somewhere near the tank.

My personal opinion from experience these nano CO2 kits are a massive waste of money.

I was also using a very high BPS amount on my nano due to the small distance the microbubbles were travelling to the surface, less time for them to diffuse CO2 into the water.

Best Regards,
John

 

[JEK]

I broke my Dennerle Nano CO2 kit after 3 refills due to the "screw to puncture" design of the cannister. I struggled to get a proper seal and ended up wasting a refill trying to fix it. In the end I just used a small FE and hid it somewhere near the tank.

My personal opinion from experience these nano CO2 kits are a massive waste of money.

I was also using a very high BPS amount on my nano due to the small distance the microbubbles were travelling to the surface, less time for them to diffuse CO2 into the water.

Best Regards,
John

Sorry to hear your problems with your Dennerle kit. I hope I won't get the same issues with mine...

 

[John Starkey]

Hi Jek,nice little nano developing here,i love the dragon stone,good luck with it and keep us posted with some more pics,

regards,
john.

 

[JEK]

Thanks, John. I'll keep you updated, that I can assure you.

 

[JEK]

I'm considering to purchase some CRS shrimps since I can't find any local shop selling Amano shrimps. My question is if they're anything worth when it comes to eating algae?

 

[JEK]

Update on an algae-infested tank.
It seems like I can't get rid of the brown thread algae.
Some really depressing pics:

I change 50% water every third day and try to remove as much as I can manually. Earlier I changed every day, but it didn't seemed like it helped.
The CO2 is stable on around 30 ppm according to the DC and I dose a little over 1 ml TPN+ every day. Recently I have also started to overdose easycarbo (1 ml).
The plants are healthy, but I don't think they grow so fast. The bacopa grows pretty good, but specially the H, micranthemoides is almost not growing.

Suggestions are very appreciated!

 

[Tom]

Try and increase to 50% water changes per day, and keep pulling it out. A toothbrush might help to remove it, and maybe some thin airline to get in the small gaps. I would personally increase both my CO2 dosing and possibly EasyCarbo too. An inline diffuser might help with distributing more CO2 if you are able to get one. Keep going, you can beat it.